``bud`` Guest, Longtime Radio Talk Show Host

DETROIT — Services were scheduled for Wednesday for Edgar A. ``Bud`` Guest II, son of one of America`s most famous poets and a longtime radio show host.

Mr. Guest died Saturday at his suburban Troy condominium after a long bout with cancer. He was 73.

After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1934, Mr. Guest went to work the following year as a general assignment reporter for the Detroit Free Press -- the newspaper where his father also started his career.

In 1936, Mr. Guest joined WJR radio to supplement his newspaper income by writing and announcing newscasts in the early morning hours. It was not until after he returned from a stint in the Navy during World War II that he hit his peak.

From 1946 until his retirement in 1972, Mr. Guest was the host of the Sunny Side of the Street talk show on WJR. He introduced a fictional cast of characters that included Milkwagon Jasper, Gertie Brooks, the Poor Parson of Monroe, Fred Fleckinger, the vice president of birdwatching, and Don Swanson, vice president in charge of gentleman farming.

Mr. Guest gave his last radio performance on July 1, 1972, when he left the airwaves because of failing eyesight. He and his wife, Elizabeth, went into semi-retirement and moved into their beloved 80-acre Sunnyside Farm in suburban Detroit.